The flowers have all faded, the seeds scattered to the wind and to be swallowed by the ground; the moisture has evaporated and leaves burnt by the sun hang on by a mere thread before casting themselves off to die and become mulch and eventually new soil…

If like me you’re feeling pretty wintry and less outwardly festive in this new year, may I recommend a good documentary for these dark days? I recently watched “Ken Burns: The West,” and WOW ~ heartbreaking and beautiful and intense! …to learn...

This feels like a risqué subject to broach, as it calls us out, those of us who are trying to be “conscious” and self-aware and good stewards of this world ~ but who may be driven unconsciously by mindsets of **Privilege** we don’t even know we hold....

Though a part of me is struck with the surreal and comic absurdity of this moment in time (and perhaps even the possibilities for change it may provoke), I must address the pain and grief that was my and so many people’s first response…

…it is okay to go into the winter deep, to rest, and to fully give ourselves **time** for the practice of emptying, clearing, refining. The light will return when it does ~ please don’t force it prematurely. The bud must stay closed until it is ripe, and now is the time to root down, finding nourishment in the dark of the hard winter soil, trusting it’s okay to leave the skeletal branches of our lives bare and exposed to the reality of the cold world.